Naked Peeping Tom Suspect Nabbed in San Jose
SAN JOSE (KPIX) -- San Jose police announced Thursday they'd arrested a man they believed had been captured on home surveillance video peeping into homes while in the nude or dressed in women's clothes.
But this isn't the first time the suspect has been accused of the same crime.
"It's scary, it's creepy," said Leslie Semple, who lives in the Meadowlands subdivision. "It's very, very unnerving."
For the last several weeks, residents in the neighborhood have shared images and video of the naked peeping tom on social media in hopes of identifying the man before he could strike again.
In a press release, San Jose police said they had identified the man as 60-year-old Mark Veregge of Mendocino and arrested him.
Veregge, according to investigators, was captured on surveillance video walking in the nude to a home on Meadlowlands Lane twice in the middle of the night, knocking on the front door, looking through a window and then taking off.
A third time, police said he was caught on camera in front of a home in a purple dress, knocking on the door and then exposing himself. In every incident, he is smoking a cigarette.
One of those homes, according to neighborhood posts, live two young girls.
In 2017, KPIX 5 obtained surveillance footage from another San Jose neighborhood of a suspect repeatedly going to a home in the middle of the night dressed in women's underwear and high heels.
A law enforcement source said that man was Mark Veregge and the victim was his former elementary school student.
At the time, Veregge was a Stanford lecturer in percussion.
"The fear is that it could escalate, that's your big fear," said Semple.
Veregge is currently in the Santa Clara county jail on multiple counts of misdemeanor peeping and prowling charges.
In the 2017 case, he pleaded no contest and a law enforcement source said he moved away soon after.
He currently is on the Opera San Jose and California Symphony websites.
"Knock it off! Knock it off. Please stop. It's really making a lot of us very, very nervous," said Semple.
